Submarine channel curvature and migration distance : a study of Joshua Channel with implications for sinuous submarine channel geomorphology and deepwater reservoir connectivity

The nature of plan-view migration in submarine channels is a subject of debate among researchers, and of significance to oil and gas investment in deepwater prospects. Early work has suggested that common features in fluvial channels such as downstream migration are rare or absent in deepwater reservoirs, and that relationships between geometric attributes of submarine channels do not compare to those in fluvial channels. This study explores whether curvature and migration in sinuous submarine channels are correlated, in a similar manner to rivers in the Amazon, where a recent study has found that variance in curvature explains 57% of variance in migration rate. Using bathymetric and seismic data from the Joshua Channel in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, this study find that variance in curvature explains approximately 52% of variance in migration distance. In addition, the lag between curvature and migration is similar to that found in rivers when scaled to thalweg width. Lastly, a qualitative financial discussion of reservoir connectivity highlights the importance of understanding submarine channel kinematics.